17 February 2024
TOPEKA (KSNT)- A Topeka family is looking to get back on track, after they lost ‘everything’ in a fire Thursday night.
Gabriella Burton and her family are homeless, and now staying in a hotel, after the tragic incident. 27 News spoke exclusively with Burton on Friday. She recounted the moment she received a phone call at work, telling her that her house was on fire.
“As soon as I got here… I noticed that my house was just gone. There’s no saving the house… the house is completely 100% lost,” Burton said. “My car was sitting next to the front door… it’s totaled completely because of the fire… It just crushed us.”
Burton said she’s lived at the home for the past 10 years. Now, her home, car, and clothes are all gone.
“I reached out to where my kids go to school at, and they’re going to try to help get them some clothes, because we lost everything… We only have the one outfit for everybody that they’re wearing,” she said.
Burton said her first thought when getting the call about the fire was to check in on her kids.
“Are my kids safe? Are they out of the house?” she asked.
Burton said there were five kids and one adult in the home when the fire broke out on their porch. She said all of them were able to make it out safely.
They took refuge at “Supercuts,” a salon next to their home. A couple of employees helped keep Burton’s kids safe.
27 News spoke with one of the salon’s employees, Ashten Corber, who recounted the “chaotic” scene.
“… Just trying to count heads… and make sure everybody was safe… and we just kind of brought everybody inside to keep them… keep them safe and keep the kids from seeing everything,” Corber said.
“Everybody was here… we shut down the store… this was really everybody’s safe place for a little bit,” she continued.
Burton and her family are thanking Corber, and others on the Supercuts team, for “literally giving the shoes off their feet” to help their family and helping them get to a safe place.
“They actually helped us get to a hotel room last night, because with the car being lost, we don’t have another vehicle that can move all of us at once,” Burton said.
Corber said she knew helping the family was the right thing to do.
“We weren’t just going to let them stand out in the cold watching their house burn,” she said. “You help when people need it… if it were my situation, I would’ve hoped someone would’ve done it for me.”
Burton said the house fire is still under investigation.
The family has a Go Fund Me page set up to try to get help to replace what was lost. Right now, Burton says she’s leaning on family and friends for support.
“We have family and friends… especially the people at my job… they’re helping out with trying to get clothes and baby stuff… and stuff that we lost,” she said.
To find the link to donate on Burton’s Go Fund Me page, click here.